In that singular system of manners which we call chivalric, religion was a chief influential principle of action; but scarcely less consequence ought in truth to be given to another feeling apparently incompatible with it; and if Venus, in the Greek mythology, was called the universal cause, her empire seems not to have been less extensive in days of knighthood. A Latin poet, of no mean authority in such subjects, has described love as the sole employment of woman's life, and of man's only a part[221]; and Boccacio says, that he composed his tales for the solace of fair and noble ladies in love, who, confined within their melancholy chambers, had no other occupation, but perpetually to revolve in their minds the same consuming thoughts, rendered intolerable by shame and concealment: while man might hunt, hawk, fish, and had a thousand channels for his thoughts. But the state of society at Rome was not similar to that in days of knighthood, and though Boccacio lived in those days, he describes the manners of commercial cities rather than of chivalric courts, of fair Florence and not of a frowning baronial castle. The ideas of God and of love were always blended in the heart of the true knight, and to be loving was as necessary as to be devout. Cervantes expresses the feelings of chivalry in the declaration of Don Quixote, that "a knight without a mistress was like a tree without either fruit or leaves, or a body without a soul." A ship without a rudder, a horse without a bridle, were other illustrations of the prevailing sentiment, and more expressive of the characteristic of chivalric love, which assigned superiority to woman, which made her the directress of the thoughts, and inspirer of the courage of her chosen cavalier. "A knight may never be of prowess, but if he be a lover," was the sentiment of Sir Tristram, a valiant peer of Arthur, and it was echoed by every gentle son of chivalry.[222] Not, indeed, that every knight felt this strength and purity of passion. Spenser has described four cavaliers, and each represents a large class. "Druon's delight was all for single life, And unto ladie's love would lend no leasure; The more was Claribell engaged rife With fervent flames, and loved out of measure: So eke lov'd Blandamour, but yet at pleasure Would change his liking, and new lemans prove: But Paridell of love did make no threasure, But lusted after all that did him move: So diversely these four disposed were to love."[223] [Sidenote: The idolatry of the knight's passion.] The true knight, he whose mind was formed in the best mould of chivalric principles, was a more perfect personification of love than poets and romancers have ever dreamed. The fair object of his passion was truly and emphatically the mistress of his heart. She reigned there with absolute dominion. His love was, "All adoration, duty, and observance."